ORANGES AVAILABLE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 88, Issue 96, 24 April 1944, Page 4

ORANGES AVAILABLE

SHOPS WILL HAVE THEM IN FEW DAYS (P.A.) Wellington, April 21. Oranges will again appear in the shops within the next few days, the production season in the islands having begun and the first shipment having arrived in Auckland, says the Internal Marketing Division, in a statement to-day. This means that the orangeless period, of about two months, which has become annual since Ihe war closed our former nut-of-season sources in Jamaica and California, is now over. Small supplies for public consumption will hereafter continue as shipping permits, first from Ihe islands and afterwards from Australia, where the season opens some two months later. Supply to hospitals, however, has never quite ceased, the Internal Marketing Division having set aside their essential needs in cool store. Two hurricanes have adversely affected the islands' crops, but this first shipment contains some 8000 cases, which are reported from Auckland to he in good condition. Australian supplies also will not be as abundant as prewar, since the Commonwealth is continuing, as last year, to juice a large part of its citrus crops for tropical troops. However, improvement is expected in the island quantities in later shipments.